Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Trilogy of Terror - Part 2

Children of the Stones - 1977

Well, I had been planning to use the trailer for Tales From The Crypt which has just been released as a double DVD with Vault Of Terror. TFTC is an Amicus Productions compendium of the macabre, featuring Joan Collins and the psycho in a Santa suit, the Monkeys Paw rework and motorcycle skeletons but some ol' youtube spoilsport’s pulled it.

So in a last minute bit of stealthy switchcraft it’s Childen of the Stones.
I wasn't much of a childrens ITV watcher growing up in the 70s, but two shows from the dark side seriously spooked me for years, and are still whispered about by anyone who stumbled across them. Escape Into Night - two children in a desolate ‘dream’ house surrounded by moving stones.
And Childen of the Stones - father and son archaeology in the worst of west country villages. As well as being a genuinely great piece of tea time drama, back then I thought the intro music was the most was terrifying scream theme ever composed and would see how long I could last with lights out (even the HTV ident music has an uncomfortable lumpy bubble bounce about it). I recently hired COTS and thought the theme tune couldn't really have been that creepy could it? Turn down the lights, turn up the sound and try it for 'sighs'.




The Damned - Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

The Damned seemed to be eternally doomed to be tarred with the Goth brush or as jokers in the Punk pack, both of which are a total disservice to the legacy of The damned. This clip may not disprove either of these theories but is still worth firing up. Dr Jekyll is ‘Punk’ in paisley shirts and pre dates the 80’s psychedelic revival by at least three years. The studio version even has a trumpet an’ everything on it. Taken from the 1980 Black Album, a double disc set with a seventeen minute masterpiece where Punk goes Prog called ‘Curtain Call’



Another top tune from the Black Album and a BBC session stormer( this is possibly even better than the album version).

The Damned - Wait For The Blackout (BBC Session)

2 comments:

bitterandrew said...

My wife loved Childen of the Stones, which she saw decages ago when it was packaged with some other import "spooky" stuff (The Haunting of Cassie Palmer and The Witches and the "Googledeegoo" or similar) and shown on Nickelodeon in its early years.

Mondo said...

It's a top show and terrifying theme tune. Thriller the Brian Clemens early 70's series is well worth a peep too.